insurgents there, multiple u.s. officials say hospitals are not targets to ever be hit. hospitals, schools and mosques are completely off the list not to be hit. this investigation may go on for some time. brianna. all right. barbara starr, thanks so much. i want to bring back our experts phil mudd and bob behr to talk about this. bob, you heard barbara s report there. it seemed as if there was some information about this being a hospital that certainly for days some u.s. authorities knew of. so what do you think? was this knowingly struck? well, i find it hard to believe that centcom would strike a hospital. yoernd i do know doctors without borders sent people to centcom and even in combat sent the coordinates to the hospital to the military in kabul. even the ac-130s which attack
and the pentagon. but there s also another aspect floating out there in the last 24 hours. the idea that special forces did believe somebody was using doctors without borders hospital as a shield, a serious terrorist. what are the facts here? do we know them yet? well, if special operations forces did believe that, it wasn t because they had eyes on. it was because of the information they were receiving from afghan military. the only eyes on that hospital when the ac-130 launched the air strike against it, was the ac-130. now, they fly, they circle at a very low altitude. they can loiter over a target forever. they go around in a circle with guns pointed right down at the target. and that gun camera video would have been easily able to pick up any gunfire of any kind coming from that hospital. and there s no indication from people we re talking to, that those cameras actually caught that. and it s important to remember
with them, just with some prior notice before some of these actions actually take place. let s go back to the fact that jim miklaszewski was reporting yesterday there was communication that has been track recorded or there is a transcript apparently somewhere of communication between the crew in the ac-130 and the ground and there may have been some members of the crew saying are you sure you want us to hit this. would that be legal, some paraphrase. i don t have the exact words because we have not been given access to the exact words. what are you hearing and could this be critical evidence? well, we only know, we are not investigators. we are doctors and aid workers working in the field. all we know is that it was the first quiet night in about a week where our hospital had been treating nearly 400 wounded during the fighting in kunduz. it s a hospital that existed for four years, was one of the most visible and well-known structures in the city. it was also, we had communicated
that launched the aerial air strike probably or it appears, anyway, that they did not follow the strict rules of engagement and in fact, we re told there was a conversation among the air crew in that ac-130 in which they expressed some concern and confusion about whether, in fact, they had the authority to launch this strike. in fact, raised a question that the air strike might be illegal. but they went ahead and launched the strike anyway. thanks very much. continuing this conversation with congressman mike pompeo from kansas. i want to get a sense of how house republicans will react to this news from the president today and one of the points republicans have made throughout is that the president failed by telegraphing what the strategy was going in, saying we are taking people out on these dates at this time and that just empowered our enemies. what do you make of the message today? this is a good step forward. i wish the troop number was actually going to be greater but
he also said that u.s. forces were responding to a request by afghan forces fighting to retake kunduz from taliban militants, who captured the proishl militants last month. in the close vicinity, they were communicating with the crew of the ac-130. each of the attacks specifically targeted a want who, even though it s gps coordinates were regularly shared with military officials as recently as september 29ing. i want to bring in the u.s. executive director of doctors without borders. good morning. hi, so this, everything about the story is appalling. we heard from general campbell at the senate hearing it was a mistake. i will listen to that for a moment and have you respond. to be clear, the decision to provide air fires was a u.s. decision made within the u.s.